Thursday, February 03, 2005

Freedom and heroism entwined with a hug

A picture on the front page of today's New York Sun captured a hug, an embrace between freedom and heroism:

AP/Gerald Herbert

An Iraqi woman and an American woman. Safia and Janet. Both had lost a loved one to those who would suppress freedom in Iraq.

Safia's dad was killed a decade ago by Saddam's henchmen. Janet's son was a marine killed recently in Fallujah. He was fighting so that Safia could be free: free from the Ba'athist tyranny that killed her father and free to vote and determine her nation's future.

Safia and Janet are being watched and applauded by the woman whose husband's resolve made Safia's freedom possible. And they are being watched by the world.

After the hug, they had trouble separating. Janet's son's dogtags became entangled in Safia's jewelry.

How appropriate: The symbol of the the American fighting man entwined in the trappings of one whose freedom his heroism made possible. May that heroism and that freedom never become unentwined in the hearts and minds of the world.

Update: Powerline points out that the Washington Post missed the boat on this one:

Today's Award for Cluelessness...

...goes to the Washington Post, which wrote in its coverage of the State of the Union speech:

The emotional highpoint of last night's event came near the end when Bush introduced the parents of a U.S. Marine from Texas, Sgt. Byron Norwood, who was killed in the assault on Fallujah, Iraq. As Norwood's mother tearfully hugged another woman in the gallery, the assembled senators and representatives responded with a sustained ovation, and Bush's face appeared creased with emotion.

"Another woman in the gallery"?? Is is possible that the Washington Post's two reporters were the only people in America who didn't grasp the point of the embrace?